Independent Groups
Washington Post: Obama donor leading Justice Department’s IRS investigation
By Josh Hicks
Two Republican lawmakers and a conservative legal group are questioning the Justice Department’s selection of a Democratic donor to lead the agency’s probe into the Internal Revenue Service’s targeting of certain advocacy groups during the 2010 and 2012 election cycles.
House Oversight Committee Chairman Darrell Issa (R-Calif.) and Rep. Jim Jordan (R-Ohio) issued a letter to U.S. Attorney General Eric H. Holder Jr. on Wednesday demanding the department remove DOJ trial attorney Barbara Bosserman from the case, saying her involvement is “highly inappropriate and has compromised the administration’s investigation of the IRS.”
Washington Post: MSNBC’s Rachel Maddow hunkers down on Koch Bros. claim
By ERIK WEMPLE
Mark V. Holden is general counsel at Koch Industries Inc., and he has a big file relating to MSNBC. The progressive cable network tends to make frequent references to Koch Industries and its politically active, free-market major shareholders Charles and David Koch. Following those references, Holden often swings into action.
Last September, for instance, he sent an e-mail to MSNBC President Phil Griffin protesting the “false and disparaging statements” allegedly made on an episode of “Disrupt with Karen Finney.” In August, he wrote Griffin about a segment on “The Ed Show” that “contained a rehash of distorted and baseless allegations and misinformation” about a certain Koch seminar. In July, he wrote Griffin about a segment of “All in with Chris Hayes” that allegedly contained “misinformation” about Koch Industries. And that’s just for starters.
Politico: Chamber renews vow to step in on primaries
By Byron Tau
“I think they’re well-intentioned people, except when they get to Washington, they’re not going to do what we want them to do, so why should we help them get here?” Donohue said.
Business leaders have vowed to push back against grass-roots conservative forces that have targeted establishment figures like Sens. Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) and John Cornyn (R-Texas) for defeat.
Business leaders are especially unhappy about the unwillingness of a minority of Republican lawmakers to routinely raise the nation’s borrowing limit, as well as the 16-day government shutdown precipitated over funding President Barack Obama’s Affordable Care Act.
AP: Super PAC supporting potential Hillary Clinton campaign raises $4M
WASHINGTON – Ready for Hillary, the super PAC trying to build a groundswell of support for a potential Hillary Rodham Clinton presidential campaign, says it raised more than $4 million in 2013.
Candidates, Politicians, Campaigns, and Parties
WSJ: Christie and the IRS Contrast the Governor’s contrition with Obama’s lack thereof.
Editorial
Which brings us to the Obama Administration, which quickly leaked to the media that the U.S. Attorney is investigating the lane closures as a criminal matter. Well, that sure was fast, and nice of Eric Holder’s Justice Department to show its typical discretion when investigating political opponents.
This is the same Administration that won’t tell Congress what resources it is devoting to the IRS probe, and appears to be slow-rolling it. It has also doubled down by expanding the political vetting of 501(c)(4) groups seeking tax-exempt status. Lois Lerner, who ran the IRS tax-exempt shop and took the Fifth before Congress, was allowed to “retire,” presumably with a pension. Acting IRS commissioner Steven Miller resigned under pressure but no other heads have rolled. Yet compared to using the IRS against political opponents during an election campaign, closing traffic lanes for four days is jaywalking.
We raise this mostly because our media friends have been complicit in dismissing the IRS abuses, and for that matter every other legal abuse during the Obama years. The exception is the Edward Snowden theft of National Security Agency documents, which so far have exposed not a single example of law-breaking.
State and Local
Colorado –– Washington Post: Colorado GOP wants to skirt campaign contribution limits
By REID WILSON
In a petition filed with Colorado Secretary of State Scott Gessler (R), the party asks permission to create an independent expenditure unit to raise and spend money on political campaigns. The party is asking Gessler to allow them to accept unlimited contributions, just as super PACs and other outside groups are allowed to do.
Independent expenditure units tied to party committees are nothing new. National groups like the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, the National Republican Senatorial Committee and their counterparts spend hundreds of millions of dollars every year on independent expenditures; the committees must create firewalls to ensure that staff working on the independent side do not coordinate with staff working in conjunction with candidates.
Maryland –– Washington Post: In ‘open letter,’ Gansler asks Democratic rivals to forgo fundraising during legislative session
By John Wagner
On the eve of Maryland’s legislative session, gubernatorial hopeful Douglas F. Gansler took the unusual step Tuesday of asking the running mate of his chief Democratic rival, Anthony G. Brown, to refrain from raising money in the coming 90 days.
Gansler, the state’s attorney general, said that Brown, the state’s lieutenant governor, risks making a “mockery” of Maryland law if Howard County Executive Ken Ulman (D) follows through with plans to solicit contributions during the session.
Missouri –– NPR: Court To Hear Challenge To Campaign Finance Limits
By Rachel Lippman
The long-simmering fight over campaign contribution limits is heating up once again. The latest chapter: a Kansas City court is to hear oral arguments Wednesday in the case between Missouri Roundtable for Life, which supports contribution limits, and libertarian interests, headed up by Rex Sinquefield.
Back in April, the anti-abortion groupMissouri Roundtable for Life announcedthat it would work to place limits on campaign contributions to candidates for state and judicial offices on the ballot in November 2014.
“Unlimited campaign contributions are corrupting politicians and creating the appearance of corruption in Jefferson City,” the organization’s president, Fred Sauer, said in a statement announcing the effort. “We need to restore political campaign contribution limits so that politicians represent Missouri citizens and not special interest groups.”
